Experimental outdoor performance assessment and energy efficiency of 11.28 kWp grid tied PV systems with sun tracker installed in saharan climate: A case study in Ghardaia, Algeria

Abstract

In recent years, the demand for grid tied solar photovoltaic systems has been rising fleetly, due to the low cost of solar panels, storage systems, and inverter equipment. The expertise of the grid related photovoltaic solar system attached sun trackers doesn't depend on the following factors, the amount of sunshine, angular travel, positioning frequency, and the region where they are installed. To comprehend how they perform in the whole world, we require assessing and comparing their performance in several parts of the country. This work details the experimental PV system setup and the analytics based on the measurements from the system in Algeria (Ghardaia City).This work exhibits detailed simulation data based on PVSYST software and compared with experimental results of an 11.28 kWp grid-connected solar system with sun tracking systems, after one year of operation at Applied Research Unit of Renewable Energy (URAER) in southern Algeria. The PV system consists of three identical 3.76 kWp solar trackers systems with the same module and inverter. This study also investigates during the real outdoor PV system operation, the yearly, monthly, and daily PV array and inverter behavior based on the performance metrics indicators, meteorological data (temperature and solar irradiation), DC and AC energy produced reference yield (YF), array yield (YA), final yield (YF), PV array and system efficiency, performance ratio (PR), PV array and system losses, and capacity factor (CF) of the whole solar photovoltaic system with sun tracker and likewise the three sub-PV systems with sun tracker following to the IEC 61,724 guidance. The electricity produced for the grid was also verified using the sunny portal application. The outcomes indicate that the binary-axis solar tracker shows a preferable performance, which collects about 20.89% further energy compared to that of the steady axis, and the one-axis tracker generates about 12.91% more energy compared to the fixed PV tracker. The energy generated (EDC) over the monitored period (2021) was 6917.50 kWh, 7810.58 kWh, and 8362.68 kWh for the steady PV system, one axis PV system, and twin axis tracking PV system, respectively. The yearly energy fed into the conventional network (EAC) over the period is 7537.4 kWh, 9962.1 kWh, and 10273.5 kWh for the stationary PV system, one axis PV system, and binary axis tracking PV system, respectively. The amount of CO2 emissions avoided over the monitored period (2021) is 4.84 tons, 5.46 tons, and 5.85 tons for the stationary PV system, one axis PV system, and twin axis tracking PV system, respectively, which can significantly contribute to cleaning the environment from pollution. The analysis shows PV module and overall system efficiency varies from (10.66%/10.26%), 10.77%/10.35%, and 10.79%/10.36% noted in July to (12.18%/11.74%, 12.34%/11.9%, and 12.41%/11.95%) noted in January for twin axis solar trackers PV systems, one axis solar trackers PV systems, and PV fixed PV systems, respectively. The analysis shows that the performance ratio (PR) varies from (72.3%, 72.4% and 71.8%) in July to (83.6%, 83.2% and 82.1%) in January and the annual average value reaches (77.95%, 77.80%, and 76.95%) for twin axis solar trackers PV systems, one axis solar trackers PV systems, and PV fixed PV systems, respectively. These performance indicators have the practical value of guiding and providing good feedback for engineers, system designers, contractors, and investors to boost the growing applications of grid-tied PV systems with a sun tracker in the same or similar location and climate conditions (Sahara environment).